Neymar also declined to talk to the media after the game against Iraq.

CoachRogerio Micale : “If we don’t respect our stars, then they won’t want to be with us. Neymar wanted to be with the national side and he had to take this on and at the age of 24 people are making so many demands of him.”

He said : “Marta and Neymar are two great Brazilian players, Neymar is just 24 and hasn’t fully matured. Generally, a player reaches his peak at 28, both physically and mentally, and he has had to deal with the pressure of being a leader since he was 17 years old.”

Micale feels that Brazil are still in a position to qualify : “We always have to reflect and even more so when we don’t get the desired result,” Micale said.

“We have a way of playing that allows us to make changes and we can’t change that without training. We’re not going to change everything because we’re not winning. What we can do is make some alterations.”